The challenges of realising benefits from ISIT Essay

The challenges of realising benefits from ISIT - Essay Example It also provides information about the challenges businesses face to implement and operate information systems. Information Systems (IS) and Information Technology (IT) are integrated into every area of organisations' business. A closer look at how IT and IS shape up internal and external environments in which businesses operate, is provided below: With the advent of internet, the traditional business environment has shifted to the e-world. With business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumers (B2C), internet and e-commerce provides a market place free from geographical boundaries, where companies can buy and sell from virtually anywhere around the globe. This provides an opportunity to organistions to extend their reach and enhance their businesses. Internet and e-commerce is a direct benefit of technology adoption for business use. As stated above, the entire world has become a single marketplace. To succeed in this market, companies merge and acquire other companies, enter into long term strategic alliances and partnerships with companies half way across the world, and develop business ecosystems that benefit both organisations. These moves require consistent and continuous communication, swift and speedy responses and strategy formulation capabilities, and face to face meetings between parties thousands of miles apart. This would not have been possible had it not for information technology. IT provides the necessary infrastructure to conduct video and teleconferencing, message transfers and 24x7 connectivity through satellite, telephones and internet. Faster Business Cycles Due to the advancement in technology, the business cycles for products and services have become faster. Companies can not wait for a long time to develop a product as competitors will almost always surpass. Information technology has provided the necessary speed, accuracy, and reliability to significantly reduce cycle times while enhancing the quality, comprehensiveness and timeliness of the product and/ or service. Enterprise Resource Planning The introduction of information systems having a large scope comprising of the entire organistion, has marked the beginning of enterprise resource planning systems or ERPs. An ERP is a software system that attempts to integrate all departments and functions across a company on a single computer system that can serve all those departments' particular needs (Koch, 2006). Accountability and Transparency Converting business operations on information systems allow the organisations ability to minimise risks of frauds, unauthorised access to sensitive data and information, and enhances internal control environment for the organisation. Knowledge Management Using the power of information technology, organisations can develop knowledge bases in form of intranet and electronic portals. This can be used as a central location to hold all the required policies, procedures, guidelines and other information necessary for workers to carry out their job responsibilities. In addition, it provides a platform that allows communication among all employees who can share views, obtain expert advice, and give feedback on the

MGM600-0803B-02 Applied Managerial Decision-Making - Phase 1 Essay

MGM600-0803B-02 Applied Managerial Decision-Making - Phase 1 Discussion Board - Essay Example On the other hand, continuous data is the information that can be calculated using scale or continuum. Continuous data comprises all types of numerical and it can be subdivided to have a better understanding into units and sub units depending on the accuracy required for a measurement. Discrete data gives input whether a variable is good, bad, on or off while continuous data can be measured in time, size, length, width, cost and temperature. Money, time and temperature are continuous data. For example, when we measure a slab of equal size, slabs that do not comply with the specifications will be put aside and this would be discrete data because slabs are separated because it is not as per the specifications. Since the data is collected to measure the slabs of specific size, it is continuous data. This example involves the measure of continuous data but discrete data forms a part of it (Karthik, 2003, Continuous Data). The American Heart Association encourages the reduction of fat in food available in restaurants, bakers and in packaged form. The association basically promotes safe food and oil consumption and has set up the 1-800 numbers for consumers to clear their doubts about food safety thereby promoting healthy eating habits (American Heart Association Calls on the U.S., 2007). Some of the commonly asked question is advice on changing the snack eating habits of obese children. This question received at 1-800 was put up at SUNY Upstate Medical University Health Connections who suggested the child should be taken to the primary care provider since the child may have basic health problems which should be checked. If it is a case of general condition, parents are referred to avail information from Mayo Clinic through the online Health library of CNN. This is a discrete date because obesity of the child cannot be measured but can be called as obese (Are Evening Snacks OK?

Ethical and legal level of counseling

Ethical and legal level of counseling 1. The concept of ethics and legal Ethics is generally defined as a philosophical discipline that is concerned with human conduced and moral decision making (Van Hoose, 1985). Ethics are normative in nature and focus on principles and standards that govern relationship between individuals, such as those between counselors and clients. Morality, however, involves judgment or evaluation of action. It is associated with such words as good, bad, right, wrong ought, and should (grant, 1992). Counselors have morals, and the theories counselors employ have embedded within them moral presuppositions about human nature that explicitly and implicitly question first What is a person and second, what should a person be or become? (Christopher, 1996) For improving the ethical and legal level of counseling, first, the counselor needs to understand what the word ethical means. Before the first counseling session, the counselor should realize how important about making good professional decisions that are both ethics and legal while being helpful to his or her clients. According to the Websters New World Dictionary (1980), it means 1. having to do with ethics; or of conforming to moral standards, 2. conforming to professional standards of conduct. Notice that these two definitions are distinctly different. This first is a personal phenomenon that is, what is moral is decide most often by individuals. In contrast, the second encompasses behaviors that are considered ethical by some professional group. In the mental health profession, that group could be the American Counseling Association (ACA), or the American Psychological (APA), just to name a few. 2. The development of codes of ethics for counselors The first counseling code of ethics was developed by the American Counseling Association (ACA) (Then the American Personnel and Guidance Association, or APGA) based on the original American Psychological Association code of ethics (Allen, 1986). The initial ACA code was initiated by Donald Super and approved in 1961 (Callis Pope, 1982). It has been revised periodically since that time. The ACA also produces A Practitioners Guide to Ethical Decision Making, video conferences on resolving leading-edge ethical dilemmas (Salo Hamilton, 1996), and an Ethical Standards Casebook (Herlihy Corey, 1996). The ACAs latest ethics code is entailed a Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice. This code is one of the major signs that counseling has developed into a mature discipline because professions are characterized, among other things, by a claim to specialized knowledge and a code of ethics. In the CAC, ethics standards are arranged under topical sectional headings. They contain material similar to that found in many other ethical codes, yet they are unique to the profession of counseling. 3. Following the Guideline for Acting Ethically For improving the higher level of the ethics of counseling, the counselors should follow guideline for acting ethically. Swanson (1983) lists guidelines for assessing whither counselors act in ethically responsible ways. The first is personal and professional honest. Counselors need to operate openly with themselves and those with whom they work. Hidden agendas or unacknowledged feelings hinder relationship and place counselors on shaky ethical ground. One way to overcome personal and professional honest problems that may get in the way of acting ethically is to receive supervision (Kitchener, 1994). The second guideline is acting in the best interest of clients. This ideal is easier to discuss than achieve. At times, a counselor may impose personal values on client and ignore what they really want (Gladding Hool, 1974). At other times, a counselor may fail to recognize an emergency and too readily accept the idea that the clients best interest is served by doing nothing. The third guideline is that counselors act without malice or personal gain. Some clients are difficult to like or deal with, and it is win these individuals that counselors must be especially careful. However, counselors must be careful to avoid relationships with likable clients either on a person or professional basis. Errors in judgment are most likely to occur when the counselors self-interest becomes a part of the relationship with a client (Germaine, 1993). The final guideline is whether counselors can justify an action as the best judgment of what should be done based upon the current state of the profession (Swanson, 1983). To make such a decision, counselors must keep up with current trends by reading the professional literature; attending in-service workshops and conventions, and becoming actively involved in local, state, and national counseling activities. The ACA Ethical Standards Casebook (Herlihy Corey, 1996) contains examples in which counselors are presented with issues and case studies of questionable ethical situations and given both guidelines and questions to reflect on in deciding what an ethical response would be. Each situation involves a standard of the ethical code. As helpful as the casebook may be, in many counseling situations the proper behavior is not obvious (Gladding, 2001). For example, the question of confidentiality in balancing the individual rights of a person with AIDS and society s right to be protected from the spread of the disease in one with which some counselors struggle. Likewise, there are multiple ethical dilemmas in counseling adult survivors about what to do in a given situation, it is crucial for counselors to concern and talk over situations with colleagues, in addition to using principles, guidelines, casebooks, and professional codes of ethics. 4. Counselor Competence and Referral The ACA Code of Ethics (1995) clearly states that Counselors must practice only within the boundaries of their competence, based on their education, training, supervised experience, state and national professional credentials, and appropriate professional experience. The APA Ethical Principles (1992) makes a similar statement and adds that: Psychologists provide services, teach, or conduct research in new area or involving new techniques only after first undertaking appropriate study, training, supervision, and consultation from person who are competent in those areas or techniques. The ethical standards are quite clear regarding what a counselor should do if he is not competent to treat a certain client problem. His first and best choice is to make an appropriate referral. If there is no one to whom he can refer (which would be an exception rather than a common occurrence), then it is incumbent on he to educate himself through reading books and journal articles on the presenting problem and to seek supervision of his work with the client. The counselor has the responsibility for the welfare of the client; therefore, it is his professional duty to obtain for that client the best services possible be it from him or from a professional colleague. Clients are not subjects for your trial and error learning but deserve the best professional care possible. One of counselors responsibilities is to recognize his or her strengths and weaknesses and to offer services only in the areas of his or her strengths. Defining a counselors areas of component usually involves critical and honest self-examination. Calling this subjective component an internal perspective, Robinson and Cross caution counselors to do everything possible to gain the skills and knowledge based to the profession. Counselors need to stretch their skills continually by reading and attending to new and developing trends, through attaining postgraduate education, and through attending seminars and workshops aimed at sharpening and increasing both knowledge and skill bases. All counselors must take full responsibility for adhering to professional codes of conduct that address the concepts of proper representation of professional qualifications, for providing only those services for which they have been trained, and for seeking assistance with personal issues that are barriers to providing effective service. Regardless of the area of the area of service being discussed, counselors are the first-line judge of their professional competence. Although credentialing bodies, professional organizations, and state legislatures may set standards for practice, the counselor must be the most critical evaluator of his or her ability to provide services. This often becomes quite a challenge when ones living dependents on having clients who will pay for service. In fact, the ethical is not always the easy choice. 5. Improving Ethics Decisions Making in Counseling The making ethics decision is the crucial key for achieving a higher level of the ethics of counseling. Ethics decision making is often not easy yet is a part of being a counselor. It requires virtues such as character, integrity, and moral courage as well as knowledge (Welfel, 1998). Some counselors operate from personal ethical standards without regard to the ethical guidelines developed by professional counseling associations. They usually function well until faced with a dilemma for which there is no apparent good or best solution (Swanson, 1983). At such times, ethical issues arise and these counselors experience anxiety, doubt, hesitation, and confusion in determining their conduct. Unfortunately, when they act, their behavior may turn out to be unethical because it is not grounded in any ethical code. The researchers found five types of ethical dilemmas most prevalent among the university counselors they surveys there: a. confidentiality, b. role conflict, c. counselor competence, d. conflicts with employer or institution, and e. degree of dangerousness. The situational dilemmas that involved danger were the least difficult to resolve and those that dealt with counselor competence and confidentiality were the most difficult. The surprising finding of this study, however, was that less than over-third of the respondents indicated that they relied on published professional codes of ethics in resolving dilemmas. Instead, most used common sense, a strategy that at times may be professionally unethical and at best unwise. It is in such types of situations that need to be aware of resources for ethical decision making, especially when questions arise over controversial behaviors such as setting or collecting fees or conducting dual relationships (Gibson Pope, 1993). Ethical reasoning, the process of determining which ethical principles are involved and then prioritizing them based on the professional requirements and beliefs, is also crucial (Lanning, 1992). In making ethical decisions, counselors should take actions based on careful, reflective thought about responses they think are professionally right in particular situations (Tennyson Strom, 1992). Several ethical principles relate to the actives and ethical choices of counselors: Beneficence (doing well and preventing harm), Non malfeasance (not inflicting harm), Autonomy (respecting freedom of choice and self-determination), Justice (fairness), and Fidelity (faithfulness or honoring commandments) (Herlihy, 1996). All these principles involve conscious decision making by counselors throughout the counseling process. Of these principles, some experts identify non malfeasance as the primary ethical responsibility in the field of counseling. Non malfeasance not only involves the removal of present harm but the prevention of future harm and passive avoidance of harm. It is the basis on which counselors respond to clients who may endanger themselves or others and why they respond to colleagues unethical behavior. 5.1 Educating Counselors in Ethical Decision Making Ethical can be improving in many ways, but one of the beat is through course offering that are now required in most graduate counseling programs and available for continuing education credit. Such courses can bring about significant attitudinal changes in students and practicing professionals, impairment, and multiculturalism (Coll, 1993). Because ethical attitudinal changes are related to ethical behavioral changes, courses in ethics on any level are extremely valuable. Van Hoose (1979) conceptualizes the ethical behavior of counselors in terms of a five-stage developmental continuum of reasoning: Punishment orientation. At this stage the counselor believes external social standards are the basis for judging behavior. If clients or counselors violate a societal rule, they should be punished. Institutional orientation. Counselors who operate at this stage believe in and abide by the rules of the institutions for which they work. They do not question the rules and base their decisions on them. Societal orientation. Counselors at this stage base decisions on societal standards. If a question arises about whether the needs of society or an individual should come first, the needs of society are always given priority. Individual orientation. The individuals needs receive top priority at this stage. Counselors are aware of society needs and are concerned about the law, but they focus on what is best for the individual. Principle (conscience) orientation. In this stage concern for the individual is primary. Ethical decisions are based on internalized ethical standards, not external considerations. As Welfel and Lipsitz (1983) point out, the work of Van Hoose and Paradise is especially important because it is the first conceptual model in the literature that attempts to explain how counselors reason about ethical issues. It is heuristic (i.e., research able or open to research) and can form the basis gor empirical studies of promotion of ethical behavior. Several other models have been proposed for educating counselors in ethical decision making. Based on Gumaer and Scott (1985), for instance, offer a method for training group workers based on the ethical guidelines of the association for specialists in group work. This method uses case vignettes and Carkhuffs three-goal, model of helping: self-expectation, self-understanding, and action. Kicherner (1986) proposes an integrated model of goals and components for an ethics education curriculum based on research on the psychological processes underlying moral behavior and current thinking in applied ethics. Her curriculum includes counselors to ethical issues, improving their abilities to make ethical judgments, encourage responsible ethical actions and tolerating the ambiguity of ethical decision making (Kitchener, 1986). Her model and one proposed are process oriented and assume that counselors do not learn to make ethical decisions on their own. Pelsma and Borgers (1986) particularly emphasize the how as opposed to what of ethics that is, how to reason ethically in a constantly changing field. Other practitioner guide for making ethical decisions are a seven-step decision making model based on a synthesis of the professional literature, a nine-step ethical decision-making models follow based on critical-evaluative judgments and seven other models created between 1984 and 1998 (cottone Claus, 2000). These ethical decision-making models follow explicit steps or stages and are often used for specific areas of counseling practice. However, through empirical comparisons and continued dialogue, the effectiveness of the models may be validated. In addition to the models already mentioned the ACA Ethics Committee offers a variety of educational experience. For example, members of the committee offer learning institutes at national and regional ACA conferences. In addition, they publish articles in the ACA newsletter. Finally, to promote counseling practices, the committee through ACA publishes a type counselors guide entitled: What you should know about the ethical practice of professional counselors, which is on the ACA website as well as printed (Williams Freeman, 2002). 6. Focus on Clients Rights When clients enter a counseling relationship, they have a right to assume that you are competent. In addition, they have certain rights, known as client rights, as well as responsibilities. These rights have their foundation in the Bill of Rights, particularly the first and fourth amendment of the constitution of the United States, which are freedom of religion, speech, and the press and right of petition and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, respectively. The concept of confidentiality, privileged communication, and informed consent are based on the fourth amendment, which guarantees privacy. Privacy has been defined as the freedom of individuals to choose for themselves the time and the circumstances under which and the extent to which their beliefs, behaviors, and opinions are to be shared or withheld from others (Corey et al., 1988). 6.1 Improving Confidentiality and Privileged Communications The concept of privacy is the foundation for the clients legal right to privileged communication and counselors responsibility to hold counseling communications confidentiality is a professional concept. It is so important that both the APA (1992) Ethical principles and the ACA (1995) Code of Ethics each devote an entire section to confidentiality. However, a clients communications are not confidential in a court of law unless the mental health professional is legally certified or licensed in the state in which he or she practices. Most states grant the clients of state-certified or licensed mental health professionals (such as psychologists, professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists) the right of privileged communications. This means that clients, not counselors, have control over who has access to what they have said in therapy and protects them from having their communications disclosed in a court of law. In order for communication to be privileged, counselors should follow four conditions. First, the communication must originate in confidence that it will not be disclosed. Second, confidentiality must be essential to the full and satisfactory maintenance of the relationship. Third, in the opinion of the greater community, the relationship must be one that should be sedulously fostered. Finally, injury to the relationship by disclosure of the communication must be greater than the benefit gained by the correct disposal of litigation regarding the information. If as a counselor can claim these four conditions, then his clients communications are not only confidential, but they are also privileged and, therefore, are protected from being disclosed in a court of law. One must remember, however, that there is always a balance between a clientss right to privacy and societys need to know. Despite the importance given to confidentiality and privileged communication, pope, and Keith-Spiegel (1987) reported that 62 percent of psychologists in a national survey indicated that they had unintentionally violated a clients confidentiality and 21 percent had intentionally violated a clients confidentiality. These alarming statistics suggest that mental health professionals are at risk for violating this core ethical principle. Therefore, all mental health professionals need to be aware of the professional standards regarding confidentiality, the professional is guilty of breaching the confidentiality. Secretaries are considered extensions of the certified or licensed mental health professionals to which they are accountable. 6.2 Improving Informed Consent The ACA (1995) Code of Ethics is very specific with respect to what should be disclosed to clients in order for them to give informed consent: When counseling is initiated, and throughout the counseling process as necessary, counselors inform clients of the purposes, goals, techniques, procedures, limitations, potential risks and benefits of services to be performed, and other pertinent information. Counselors take steps to ensure that clients understand the implications of diagnosis, the intended use of tests and reports, fee, and billing arrangements. Clients have the right to expect confidentiality and be provided with an explanation of its limitations, including supervision and treatment team professionals; to obtain clear information about the case records; to participate in the ongoing counseling plans; and to refuse any recommended services and be advised on the consequences of such refusal. If a counselor is asked by a client to disclose to a third party information revealed in therapy, have the client sign an informed consent form before making any disclosure. The counselor may be surprised to learn that counselor are not even permitted to respond to inquiries about whether they are seeing a person in therapy even the clients name and status in counseling are confidential, unless the client has granted permission for this information to be released. One exception is when the client is paying for the services through an insurance company. This automatically grants the insurance company limited access to information regarding the client. The client needs to be made aware of the parameters of the information that will be shared with the insurance company prior to beginning therapy. Again, it is evident how important it is to have potential clients sign an informed consent form before they become clients. 6.3 Improving Clients Welfare All the preceding discussion rests on the permission rests on the premise that the counselors primary obligation is to protect the welfare of the client. The preamble to the APA (1992) Ethical Principles specifically states that it has as its primary goal the welfare and protection of the individuals and groups with whom psychologists work. A similar statement is made by ACA (1995) Code of Ethics: the primary responsibility of counselors is to respect the dignity and to promote the welfare and of clients. Dual relationships, counselors personal needs have already been discussed; attention now needs to be given to the third concern. An additional set of guidelines comes into play when a counselor is doing work or working with a couple or family. In a group setting, special issues include qualifications of the group leader, informed consent when more than the group leader will be participating in therapy, the limits to confidentiality and to privileged communication when third parties are present in therapy, and understanding how individuals will be protected and their growth nurtured in a group situation. Unlike individual counseling, clients who want to be involved into a group experience need to be screened before being accepted into a group. This screening not only ensures that the client is appropriate for the group but also protects other group members from a potentially dysfunctional group member. It is evident that client welfare, whether in individual therapy or in group work, rests squarely on the shoulders of the counselor. The counselor must be cognizant of the various aspects of the counseling relationship that can jeopardize the clients welfare and take the steps necessary to alleviate the situation. Robinson Kurpius and Gross offer several suggestions for safeguarding the welfare of each client: Check to be sure that you are working in harmony with any other mental health professional also seeing your client. Develop clear, written descriptions code of what clients may expert with respect to therapeutic regime, testing and reports, recordkeeping, billing, scheduling, and emergencies. Share your professional code of ethics with your clients, and prior to beginning therapy discuss the parameters of a therapeutic relationship. Know your own limitations, and do not hesitate to use appropriate referral sources. Be sure that the approaches and techniques used are appropriate for the client and that you have the necessary expertise for their use. Consider all other possibilities before establishing a counseling relationship that could be considered a dual relationship. Evaluate the clients ability to pay and when the payment of the usual fee would create a hardship. Either accept a reduced fee or assist the client in finding needed services at an affordable cost. Objectively evaluate client progress and the therapeutic relationship to determine if it is consistently in the best interests of the client. Improving the Ethics of Counseling in Some Specific Situations Counselors should check thoroughly the general politics and principles of an institution before accepting employment because employment in a specific setting implies that selves in institutions that misuse their services and do not act in the best interests of their clients, they must act either to change the institution through educational or persuasive means or find other employment. The potential for major ethical crises between a counselor and his or her employer exists in many school setting. School counselors are often used as tools by school administrators. When the possibility of conflict exists between a counselors loyalty to the employer and the client, the counselor should always attempt to find a resolution that protects the rights of the client; the ethical responsibility is to the client first and the school lore other setting second (Huey, 1986). One way school counselors can assure themselves of an ethically sound program is to realize that they may encounter multiple dilemmas in providing services to students, parents, and teachers. Therefore, before interacting with these different groups, school counselors should become families with the ethical standards of the American school counseling association, which outlines counselors responsibilities to the groups with whom they work (Henderson, 2003). One of the most common situations of counseling is about the family and marriage. The reason is that counselors are treating a number of individuals together as a system, and it is unlikely that all members of the system have the same goals. To overcome potential problems, Thomas (1994) has developed a dynamic, process-oriented framework for counselors to use when working with families. This model discusses six values that affect counselors, clients, and the counseling process: (a) responsibility, (b) integrity, (c) commitment, (d) freedom of choice, (e) empowerment, and (f) right grieves. Then, when a counselor faces the counseling of family or marriage, he or she should try to follow this framework. The use of computers and technology in counseling is another area of potential ethical difficulty. The possibilities exist for a breach of client information when computers are used to transmit information among professional counselors. Other ethically sensitive areas include client or counselor misuse and even the validity of data offered over computer links. In addition, the problem of cyber counseling or web counseling that is, counseling over the internet in which the counselor may be hundreds of miles away is fraught with ethical dilemmas. Thus, the national board of certified counselors has issued ethical guidelines regarding such conduct. Other counseling settings or situations with significant potential for ethical dilemmas include counseling the elderly, multicultural counseling, working in managed care, diagnosis of clients, and counseling research (Jencius Rotter, 1998). In all of these areas, counselors face new situations, some of which are not addressed by the ethical standards of the ACA. For instance, in working with older adults, counselors must make ethical decisions regarding the unique needs of the aging who have cognitive impairments, a terminal illness, or who have been victims of abuse. In order to do so, counselors may apply principle ethics to these situations that are based on a set of obligations that focus on finding socially and historically appropriate answers to the question: What shall I do? In other word, Is this action ethical? They may also employ virtue ethics, which focus on the character traits of the counselor and nonobligatory ideals to which professional aspire. Rather than solving a specific ethical question, virtue ethics are focused on the questions: Am I doing what is best for my client? Counselors are wise to integrate both forms of ethics reasoning into their deliberations if they wish to make the best decisions possible. In making ethical decisions where there are no guidelines, it is also critical for counselor to stay abreast of current issues, trends, and even legislation related to the situation they face. In the process, counselors must take care not to stereotype or otherwise be insensitive to clients with whom they are working. For instance, a primary emphasis of research ethics is, appropriately, on the protection of human subjects in research. In the area of research in particular, there are four main ethical issues that must be resolved: a. informed consent, b. coercion and deception, c. Confidentiality and privacy, and d. reporting the results. (Robinson Gross, 1986) All of these areas involve people whose lives are in the care of the researcher. Anticipation of problems and implementation of policies that produce humane and fair results are essential. 8. Improving the Legal Aspects of Counseling Counselors must follow specific legal guidelines in working with certain populations. But counselors may often have considerable trouble in situations in which the law is not clear or a conflict exists between the law and professional counseling ethics. Nevertheless, it is important that providers of mental health services be fully informed about what they can or cannot do legally. Such situations often involve the sharing of information among clients, counselors, and the court system. Sharing may be broken down into confidentiality, privacy, and privileged communication. Confidentiality is the ethical duty to fulfill a contract or promise that the information revealed during therapy will be protected from unauthorized disclosure. Confidentiality become a legal as well as an ethical concern if it is broken, whether intentionality or not. It is annually one of the most inquired about ethical and legal concerns received by the ACA Ethics Committee including dilemmas regarding right to privacy, clients right to privacy, and counselors avoiding illegal and unwarranted disclosures of confidential information (Williams Freeman, 2002). Privacy is an evolving legal concept that recognizes individuals rights to choose the time, circumstances, and extent to which they wish to share or withhold personal information. Clients who think they have been coerced into revealing information they would not normally disclose may seek legal recourse against a counselor. Privileged communication, a narrower concept, regulates privacy protection and confidentiality by protecting clients from having their confidential communications disclosed in court without their permission. It is defined as a clients legal right, guaranteed by statute, that confidences originating in a therapeutic relationship will be safeguarded (Arthur Swanson, 1993). Most states recognize and protect privileged communication in counselor-client relationships. As opposed to individuals, the legal concept of privileged communication generally does not apply in group and family counseling (Anderson, 1996). However, counselors should consider certain ethical concerns in protecting the confidentiality of group and family members. One major difficulty with any law governing client and counselor communication is that laws vary from state to state. It is essential that counselors know and communication to their cli

security :: essays research papers

The use of computers within the business and government sector has said to have ‘rapidly increased over the last fifteen years’; this therefore provides a whole new prospect for a distinctive criminal to prosper, and in most cases, to go utterly undiscovered. It has been anticipated that, unless this particular problem is tackled head on, losses from the computer crime may eventually reach $50 billion per year. One expert in the field has estimated that, under present law the chances of a computer criminal being convicted are 1 in 500, and of going to jail as 1 in 1000. The possibility of corporations or banks going bankrupt as a result of computer theft is very real. W. John Taggart, â€Å"Computer Law in Australia†. There are many forms of computer abuse, yet they have come to many solutions. Many penalties if the criminals get caught and yet there are many weaknesses in computer law. With the expeditions rate of advances in technology, coping with those classi fied as ‘computer criminals’ who are always one step ahead, is virtually impossible. They may ‘patch up’ faults in previous systems, however do not recognise faults in latest systems until it’s too late. Computer crime involves the unauthorised and unlawful use of a computer. Given growth of technology in our society, the incidence of computer rime is a matter of considerable concern for our law-makers. The cost of computer crime in the United States has been estimated to be at least $5000 million a year. (Cudmor, Greg â€Å"Computer Law†, page 8). Who would be classified as a ‘computer criminal’? It is said that often the ‘computer criminal’ is a trusted employee and the problem for organisations seems to be internal security. The community considers computer crime, as being less serious than other crimes against property, such as burglary or car theft, as it is not violent or public. In many instances computer crime is not always reported, due to the complexity of information systems. It is sometimes possible for offences to be concealed and often victims are unaware that an offence has even been committed. A reason for computer crime not being reported is when the crime is discovered companies defrauded of tremendous sums of money are sometimes ashamed to report a breach of security. Another reason is that the offender is sometimes and employee of the company and if the harm is not significant the company may discipline or dismiss the offender.

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Learning Module 3 Connor MacLeod 100254620 The first video, The Solar Nebular Theory, describes the planetary formation through a collapsing cloud of dust and gas that spins in the same direction at a fast pace. Through angular momentum, as it collapses even more, it speeds up and flattens into a disk. As it flattens, the materials start to come together and planets start to form as well as a young star is created in the middle. What I liked about the video is how they used good analogies such as the pizza and the figure skater to get the idea of angular momentum across.What I didn’t like about the video is how they didn’t go more in depth about the other bodies that are created around the star. To make it better I would’ve used our solar system as an example in order to relate to it better The 2nd video is the Planetisimal video. It goes on to describe how particles grow by condensation, the process of adding matter to an atom or molecule. Once they get to a big enough size, the particles start to stick to others through a process called accretion. Planetisimals continue to grow by colliding and sticking to others until it gets large enough to turn into a protoplanet.The stage where iron falls to the core and heat is generated while lighter materials stay on the outside to create the earths crust. What I did not like about the video is how they do not specify how long it takes for it to turn into a protoplanet from a planetisimal. The woman talks about millions of years to get to the diameter of the particle to centimeters until they start to collide, but lacks the information of how long the collisions take to get bigger. They could improve the video by adding these details into it.What I liked about the video is how it goes in depth about protoplanets and the gravitational collapse as the textbook had me somewhat confused. The 3rd video is the extra solar planets. It is about how to detect planets outside of our solar system that gravita te around other stars. They don’t try and find planets directly, they observe the stars in which they believe planets gravitate around and watch how the star reacts. The way they can measure this is through the Doppler affect. As the planet gravitates around it, it pulls the star in different directions.So when a star comes towards you, its light gets compressed, and when it is moving away, the light waves get stretched. What I liked about the video is the way they illustrated how the Doppler affect worked with visuals as oppose to the dog theory in the textbook. That being said, what I didn’t like about the video was how they focused solely on detecting planets through the Doppler affect, I would improve upon this video by not leaving out the other approach of detecting the difference in light when a planet moves in front of it.The 4th video is about meteorites. It discuses how meteoroid’s cause meteors, that is until it reaches the ground and are renamed to me teorites. It then describes how each meteorite is classified by its composition. Each different composition inside a meteorite allows geologists to identify their space origins. What I liked about the video is how they discussed the different kinds of meteorites and the significance of different compositions of the meteorites. What I didn’t like is how they did not touch upon meteor showers and different meteor showers.To improve this video I would’ve included some facts of the Perseid meteor shower. The 5th video is about asteroids. It discusses how Italian astronomer Piazzi discovered the first asteroid. Now there are over 100,000 asteroids that lay in the asteroid belt near mars and Jupiter. They also describe the reason the asteroids are in the belt could be due to a planet that never formed. The pull of Jupiter’s gravity kept the particles accelerating so fast, they could never accrete.What I liked about the video is how it spent the most time discussing wh y the asteroid belt exists as that caught my attention the most in the textbook, where its only mentioned briefly. What I didn’t like about the video is it didn’t discuss the shapes and size of the asteroids themselves. To improve this video I would’ve added some interesting facts from the textbook such as some are asteroids are 200km in diameter. The 6th video is about comets. It talked about how civilization was influenced from comets and the association of comets to earth through eligious or mythological oriented societies and how they were viewed as a bad omen. What I did not like about this video is how it did not describe at all what a comet is, or what it is made up of. They could make this video better by discussing the basics of a comet, not just the historic significance it played on our societies. That being said, what I did like about this video is the telling of how it played a role in our societies that if something bad happened, and a comet was in the sky, it started to be associated with each other.

Vietnam Piracy History

II. The Prioriry actions requested in 2012: IIPA had hoped that the 2005 passage of the IP Code in Vietnam, revisions to the Criminal Code in 2009, an administrative enforcement Decree (No. 47) also in 2009, and a nationwide judicial reformprocess would lead to steady improvements in copyright protection, allowing a legitimate creative marketplace to emerge in Vietnam. Unfortunately, online and mobile piracy has gotten significantly worse in Vietnam, and end-user piracy of business software remains largely unchecked, among other piracy problems.Increased Internet and mobile penetration and more widely available broadband capacity have led to a severe increase in the trade of illegal copyright files online. Technological advances in Vietnam have outpaced the government’s response to copyright issues, notwithstanding that the Vietnamese have long recognized that piracy in the country is increasingly â€Å"sophisticated† and involves violations of â€Å"most of the object s of the rights†.The Vietnamese Government has taken very few enforcement actions over the years, and no criminal case has ever been brought to address copyright piracy. Because of that, IIPA has launched the priority actions requested in 2012 to reduce the piracy situation in Vietnam: Enforcement: * Devote greater resources and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST) Inspectorate and Economic Police manpower to running raids and bringing cases under the Criminal Code through targeted criminal actions,e. . , against online piracy, retail and source piracy,.. * Take effective enforcement measures against notorious infringing sites whose business models are based on providing access to infringing content, including in particular those sites such as Socbay. com, Bamboo. com,†¦ * Enforce Ordinance No. 4 and Decree No. 47 on administrative remedies for copyright infringement, imposing maximum penalties. * Reduce pirated imports from China. Reduce signal theft by removin g illegal content from local cable operators and stopping retransmission of signals from neighboring countries without license. Legislation and Market Access * Issue implementing guidance for the revised Criminal Code so that prosecutions can commence, in line with Vietnam’s BTA obligation, including by confirming that the Code applies to online distributions, and providing detailed interpretations of â€Å"commercial scale† infringements that include those undertaken without a profit motive. Make necessary changes to IP Code and implementing decrees to ensure Vietnam is in full compliance with its BTA and other international obligations, and otherwise facilitate the free exercise of rights by copyright owners. * Expedite the drafting process for, and provide public consultation as to, amendments to the Internet Decree (or circular) on ISP liability that clarifies the secondary liability of ISPs and requires ISPs to take responsibility and cooperate with right holders to combat online infringements both in the hosted and the non-hosted environment. Afford U. S. right holders greater access to the Vietnamese market, by eliminating foreign investment restrictions and other entry barriers with respect to production, importation and distribution of copyright materials whether in the physical or online/mobile marketplaces. * Extend the term of protection for sound recordings to the BTA-compatible term (75 years or more) and otherwise extend copyright term in line with the international trend (life of the author plus 70 years). * Pass optical disc licensing regulation. III.The actual out come of the 2011 decisions (the result in 2012 after applying priority actions requested in 2012) IIPA hopes the issuance and entry into force in 2012 of the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) and Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism (MCST) Joint Circular on Stipulations on the Responsibilities for Intermediary Service Providers in the Protection of C opyright and Related Rights on the Internet and Telecommunications Networks will lead to significant reductions in online and mobile piracy in the country, including closures of notorious websites and services built on copyright infringement.The IP Code, Criminal Code, administrative enforcement Ordinances and Decrees, and judicial reform, must all be brought to bear to significantly reduce all forms of piracy, including online and mobile piracy, enterprise end-user piracy of software, physical piracy, and book piracy which remain largely unchecked in Vietnam. And the results after applying priority actions requested in 2012, Piracy Situation and enforcement challenges in Viet Nam are summarized as follows: 1.Internet and Mobile Piracy Causing Severe Damage to Copyright Owners: Increased Internet and mobile penetration and more widely available broadband capacity have led to a severe increase in the trade of illegal copyright files online. Internet penetration continued on an upward path, with reportedly 31. 1 million Internet users according to the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC) of Vietnam, with 3G mobile Internet users reaching 16 million (18% of the country’s population).Vietnam ranks 18th in the world, 8th in Asia, and 3rd in Southeast Asia in the total number of Internet users. According to MIC, there are 19 Internet service providers, some 1,064 licensed websites, and 335 social networks operating in Vietnam. Unfortunately, the vast majority of websites dealing in copyright content remain unlicensed, although there are now a few operators of online services providing licensed music (representing, however, only 1% of online music services).The rest are streaming and download sites (50%), forums (21%), video websites (17%), search engines (8%), deeplinking, cyberlocker, and social network sites all being employed to deliver unlicensed copyright content, including music, movies, entertainment and software, and published materials. N ot only the repertoire of VietNam but international and other Asian repertoire such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean music can also be found on these sites. And University networks are increasingly being used for dissemination of infringing content.Specific example for this case is Zing. vn. Zing. vn is one notorious website which was identified by IIPA in its annual notorious markets filing with the U. S. Trade Representative, and USTR placed Zing. vn on its â€Å"Notorious Markets† list. Zing. vn is an online portal service operated by VNG Corporation (previously called VinaGame) in Vietnam. Zing. vn provides various services including an online music portal, social networking, a search engine, instant messaging, movies, karaoke, video and photos. Zing. n, well documented in last year’s IIPA Special 301 report, was proposed by IIPA as a â€Å"notoriousmarket† in its Special 301 out-of-cycle review submission in September 2012, and USTR agreed in its December 20 12 announcement. USTR noted in its announcement, â€Å"In addition to being a social media site, Vietnam-based Zing. vn also includes an infringing deeplinking music portal, which reportedly attracts large numbers of users to the site. † They also indicated, â€Å"We understand that VNG, Zing’s parent company is currently in talks with rights holders to obtain the necessary licenses to transitionZing into an authorized digital music platform. † With rapid increases in mobile phone subscribers in Vietnam, there has also been an increase in mobile piracy over the year. Right holders now face two major challenges in the mobile space: 1) the loading by mobile device vendors of illegal copyright content onto devices at the point of sale; and 2) illegal music channels or â€Å"apps† set up to be accessed on mobile platforms, without any intervention from the authorities to cease such activities.As an example of this phenomenon, sites like Socbay. com offer ille gal downloads of ringtones to mobile phones, but Socbay has now developed a mobile â€Å"app† called Socbay iMedia which provides a variety of unauthorized entertainment content, including, inter alia, music files. This second phenomenon will, if allowed unchecked, threaten the entire online/mobile market for music and other copyright materials into the future and must be addressed. 2.Enterprise End-User Piracy of Software Harms the Software Industry and Stunts the Growth of the IT Sector: The software industry reports a continued high level of software piracy in Vietnam. In 2011, the software piracy rate in Vietnam was 81% (among the highest in the world), representing a commercial value of unlicensed software of US$395 million. 13 This includes widespread unlicensed software use by enterprises in Vietnam, retail piracy, and hard disk loading of unlicensed software. Most leading cities, such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da N? ng, and H? Phong are still key software piracy hot spots. The industry also notes the desperate need for legalization of software usage within the Vietnamese government. It has been recognized by some within the Vietnamese government that use of unlicensed commercial software is occurring within government ministries. Some initial discussions on government legalization have commenced between BSA and the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), with a focus on legalization procedures and the government avoiding any mandates orpreferences for the purchase of specific types of software. . Physical Piracy Remains Rampant, Including Pirate Imports, Pirate Burned Content, Factory Production, and â€Å"Media Box† Piracy: Evidence of physical piracy, including virtually 100% piracy of home video entertainment, can still be found everywhere in Vietnam, especially in urban areas like Ha Noi, HCM City,†¦ It remains very easy to buy almost imported discs (from China mainly),burned discs or factory discs of any kind of conte nt, and pirated software is readily available at shops on the socalled â€Å"PC streets† or other â€Å"CD-DVD† shops.Vietnamese-sourced pirate products flood the domestic markets and have been found in other markets in recent years in Asia, North America, and even Eastern Europe. For the music industry, with piracy levels still extremely high, financial returns for recorded music sales have dropped so deeply that the companies involved are unable to invest in new albums and artists, choosing to recoup investment through ring tones, ring-back tones, ancillary revenues for personality rights, and music channel licensing. 4. Book and Journal Piracy Severely Harms Publishers:Book and journal publishers continue to suffer from rampant piracy in Vietnam, in the form of illegal reprints and unauthorized photocopies. Bookshops, roadside vendors and copy shops all sell unauthorized copies of bestselling trade books, travel books and academic textbooks, and unlicensed print ove rruns continue to harm foreign publishers. Unauthorized translations produced by university lecturers or professors have been detected, in which the lecturers or professors append their name to the translated textbook.State-sector publishers also have an interest in making sure their licenses (such as those of the Ministry of Youth and the General Publishing House of Ho Chi Minh City) are not misused. 5. Signal Piracy/Pay TV Piracy: Vietnam's Pay-TV sector is one of the fastest developing markets in the Asia Pacific, and is set to rank fourth in the region in growth over the next four years. With 4. 2 million overall connections, and digital systems taking hold (including through Vietnamese Government infusion of capital), signal piracy in Vietnam still holds back the legitimate Pay-TV market, and causes major damages to right holders. Overspill† is also a problem in Vietnam as cable operators capture signals from neighboring countries’ satellite systems. These are ende mic problems which the government should address. A relatively new and dangerous problem in Vietnam involves the operation of websites which steal pay-TV signals and stream them onto the Internet. Several sites have been identified as streaming premium content channels without authorization, mainly focusing on motion pictures or sports content.In general, after applying the above policy, the piracy situation in Vietnam has not improved. One of the reasons for this situation is enforcement challenges. Enforcement updates in Vi? t Nam: Failure to Address Internet and Mobile Device Piracy: Despite notifying the Vietnamese government ofsites involved in piracy of music, movies, software, games, and published works (with reports of growing electronic piracy of textbooks and dictionaries, among other published products), the government has been mainly inactive and disinterested. Notorious piracy site zing. n has been brought to the attention of administrative authorities in Vietnam, but t here has been no response. The problem is further compounded by existing administrative enforcement remedies being rendered ineffective by: * The lack of an effective procedure to deal with online piracy administrative complaints. * A heavy burden on right holders for production of evidence and proof of actual damages. * Continued rudimentary issues related to ability to identify and effectively deal with online infringement cases. * Lack of compliance with administrative ordersCourt Reform Efforts Lacking: The inactivity of the courts in dealing with copyright infringement issues is a major disappointment. There have to date been relatively few civil court actions involving copyright infringement in Vietnam. The main reasons for this are complicated procedures, delays, and a lack of certainty as to the expected outcome. Building IP expertise must be a part of the overall judicial reform effort. Training should be provided to police and prosecutors as they play a very important role in bringing a criminal offense case to the courts.End-User Piracy Enforcement: One relatively bright spot in enforcement seems to be in the area of addressing software piracy. In 2012, more raids were taken with participation of both MCST and the MPS Anti-High Tech Crime Police. Administrative fines remain relatively low, generally, VND50 million (around US$2,400), never reaching the maximum applicable rate of VND500 million (US$24,000). The industry also reports stronger support given to both enforcement and educational campaigns to sensitize the public to the need to use legal software.The presence of the High Tech Police is now seen as essential for the success of raids as they possess technical knowledge which is helpful to achieving effective raids. In addition, there are training courts covered the overview of copyright laws and the value of IP and innovation. There remain no implementing guidelines for the revised Criminal Code, so no software piracy cases have ever been bro ught to Criminal Court. Very Little Enforcement Against Hard Goods Piracy:Though MCST has indicated its recognition of the hard goods piracy problem, it has devoted very few resources to deal with physical piracy across Vietnam. Only a ‘zero tolerance’ campaign, including actions against open and blatant piracy activities of all kinds, with deterrent administrative fines meted out to their maximums, license revocations, shop closures, seizures of pirate imports and pirated product destined for export by Customs, and criminal penalties can result in a significant reduction in piracy in Vietnam.

The Chrysalids by Thomas M. Wagner Essay Example

The Chrysalids by Thomas M. Wagner Essay Example The Chrysalids by Thomas M. Wagner Paper The Chrysalids by Thomas M. Wagner Paper The Review of â€Å"The Chrysalids†, written by Thomas M. Wagner in the year 2004, explores the elements of the book that made it a memorable reading experience, while also discussing the points that rendered the book’s focal issues moot. Wagner compliments Wyndham’s use of his book to explore the themes of xenophobia, intolerance and bigotry that were prominent in society during the period, but criticizes the climax, involving the Sealander Lady and her justification for her actions during the rescue. The piece involves strengths surrounding Wagner’s use of informal language, his focus on critical themes explored throughout the text, and his discussion of the flawed survival of the fittest trope. The article is not without its weaknesses, failing to deliver topic sentences throughout, and introducing a new point in the concluding paragraph. Informal language tends to be used in situations where writers want to bring across their points in a succinct manner, without complicating the information being delivered. Wagner’s use of informal language is prominent throughout the article, bringing across a particular tone that is used to highlight his view of the piece’s climax. Examples of informal language being used can be found in paragraph 9, ‘So far, so good’ and paragraph 14, ‘I almost needed a crane to hoist my jaw from the floor’. Both examples bring across a more personal tone, and link the writer to the target readers more directly. Because of Wagner’s use of a thesis statement in his introductory paragraph, there was provision of information on the strengths and weaknesses that were present in the text. This thesis statement provides readers with knowledge of what is to be expected. He discusses the themes with the text, that focused on the issues of xenophobia, intolerance and bigotry that were heavily prominent during the period when the text was written. He draws a comparison between the book and the Nazi Par